Simulations of a dwarf galaxy by RIKEN astrophysicists have revealed the various processes by which moderately heavy metals such as strontium are birthed. They have found that at least four kinds of stars are needed to explain the observed abundance of these metals in dwarf galaxies.

Full Story: RIKEN Research: Simulation of dwarf galaxy reveals different routes for strontium enrichment

Figure 1: The dwarf galaxy Sculptor contains stars where the s-process may be responsible for enriching strontium levels. (Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2)

Figure 2: Stellar [Sr/Fe] ratios (left panel) and [Sr/Ba] ratio (right panel) as a function of [Fe/H]. The dots and color marks shows the observed ratios towards stars in the Milky Way and nearby dwarf galaxies. the beginning of the simulation in the model considering the effects of neutron star mergers, asymptotic giant branch stars, rotating massive stars, and electron-capture supernovae. The color tiles denotes the stellar mass fraction predicted by the model, where red indicates more stars are expected and blue indicates less. (Credit: Hirai et al., 2019, ApJ)

[Paper Details]

Title: Enrichment of strontium in dwarf galaxies
Authors: Yutaka Hirai, Shinya Wanajo & Takayuki R. Saitoh
Journal: The Astrophysical Journal 885, 33 (2019)
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab4654

[Supercomputer Used in This Research]

This research utilized the NAOJ supercomputer ATERUI II (Cray XC50) for general relativistic radiation transfer simulations around a black hole. ATERUI II is operated at NAOJ Mizusawa Campus (Oshu, Iwate) with a theoretical peak performance of 3.087 Pflops. (Image Credit: NAOJ)

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Full Story: RIKEN Research: Simulation of dwarf galaxy reveals different routes for strontium enrichment